Think back about 10 years and try to remember how you used to garner interest about an event that you were throwing in Santa Barbara.

How would you get people’s attention? How would you maximize the number of people who knew about the event? Would you be able to easily track attendees? Could you easily let people know of changes if something came up?

Chances are that these hypothetical questions gave you some real-life headaches.

Luckily, planning and promoting events has completely changed thanks to the help of social media and the Internet in its entirety. If you’re a savvy with your Internet promoting methods, you can track, measure and inform your audience with up-to-the-minute results in ways like never before.

As you read through this insight on how to promote your Santa Barbara event on the web, a few parameters that you should consider are:

» Keeping your target audience in mind

» Knowing who your sponsors are

» Determining the best outlets for reaching your audience

» Understanding how to handle issues or concerns that may come up along the way.

As you make note of these considerations, here are some tips for promoting your Santa Barbara event on the web, and utilizing all of the resources at your disposal.

Do Some Preliminary Research

Before you begin your marketing efforts, it’s important that you first do a bit of research to determine where your efforts will be best spent. After all, it’s pointless if you put all of your efforts into marketing something that other people will never take interest in.

While you’re doing your preliminary research, find keywords that you can target and use online. If you are able to link keywords with a “Santa Barbara” tag, then your event will be much more easily discoverable by users who are looking for it. Those keywords will be influential throughout the rest of your campaign, so understanding how to use them is worth the time investment in the first steps of online promotion.

Build Your Presence

Once you have your keywords figured out, where do you use them? This is where you are also going to want to find out where your online presence is best met with your typical users.

For example, you may notice that most of your users are on a social media site like Facebook or Twitter. You might also recognize that having a website or blog is better for reaching people who are not familiar with social media. Or you may even want to consider an email list to directly reach people on a regular basis.

Whatever your potential market is, this is where you should build your online presence.

The great news is that building your online presence isn’t going to dig deep into your budget. Social media accounts can be set up for free, and a website or email client is something that will be very cost-efficient. Not only is online promotion more convenient that more traditional methods, but it’s also cheaper as well.

Start Networking

Once you have everything in place, it’s time to start networking with people and building your online promotion. The best way to start with this is to connect with people who you know personally. Inform them of the event in Santa Barbara and ask them to share with others who may be interested. You will be surprised to see how quickly this can spread, which will make your networking efforts incredibly worthwhile.

Keep Things Fresh

To make sure you are staying at the top of search engine results, your promotional efforts should also be geared toward keeping things fresh and updated throughout all of your online networks. You will need to consistently update your social media posts and add new content to your website. Not only does this keep people interested in the event that you are promoting in Santa Barbara, but it’ll also help you increase your wherewithal in SEO results.

If you’re having a hard time finding content to continually update, consider a news release to get people excited. There is plenty of viral content that consists of, “Top 10” lists or photos of cats eating cheeseburgers, so having something that is relevant to Santa Barbara will really interest your audience and grab their attention.

And if you need help with creating this new and exciting content, you can also consider hiring someone to manage this task for you.

Implement Media

People want to see what it is that you are putting together for your Santa Barbara event. With the Internet, you can provide media that will give them exactly what it is that they want.

For example, you can provide insider photos or videos of the process that it takes to put together your event. By showing people the process, they will take more interest, but the event will remain in the person’s mind. And if this media goes viral, it could mean getting thousands of views in a short period of time.

Instant Communication

In the event that someone has a question about your Santa Barbara event, it’s vital that you respond and communicate with them as quickly as possible. This can be done through automatic email responses, RSS feeds or even instant messenger services. It’s also important that you respond to social media posts and comments quickly as well.

By communicating with your audience quickly, they will see that you are attentive and interested. It will also help to generate a positive vibe about your event, which will work in your favor as you try and draw in more people to the event.

Provide Easy Access

Finally, you need to ensure that the online promotion of your Santa Barbara event includes easy resources for people to find out more information. This should include an email address, links to other online networks, as well time and date information regarding the event.

The easier that you make it for people to find out information about your event, the less likely it is that there will be confusion during the process.

The way that you prepare for your event in Santa Barbara has changed. Instead of relying on outdated techniques and methods, consider the tips here for promoting your Santa Barbara event on the web.

— Taylor Reaume is an e-Business coach and founder of Search Engine Pros. He can be contacted at taylor@thesearchenginepros.com, or 1.800.605.4988. Click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.